


Troublesome Chronometry

by onemechanicalalligator



Category: Community (TV)
Genre: Best Friends, Canon Autistic Character, Ficlet, Gen, Missing Scene
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-22
Updated: 2020-06-22
Packaged: 2021-03-03 23:27:08
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 791
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24863794
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/onemechanicalalligator/pseuds/onemechanicalalligator
Summary: Abed suddenly understands why he’s so uneasy, and it’s because daylight savings time doesn’t make any sense, and when he tries to think about it, to understand why, in the 21st century, everyone is expected to change their clocks, when artificial light is a thing literally everywhere, he is completely at a loss. Becauseit doesn’t make any sense.My take on the Daylight Savings Time scene in "Curriculum Unavailable."
Comments: 6
Kudos: 106





	Troublesome Chronometry

Abed is sitting in the study room with Troy and Annie late one evening, finishing up some last minute edits for his film class, when the janitor comes in with a ladder. Abed is pretty engrossed in what he’s doing, so he doesn’t pay much attention until he looks up and sees the janitor messing with the clock on the wall.

He doesn’t read analog clocks well. For that reason, he rarely pays any attention to the clock in this room. But now the janitor is _moving the hands of the clock,_ and something about that is deeply unsettling to Abed, so unsettling that it makes his stomach churn.

“Oh, shit,” Troy says. “Daylight savings. I totally forgot.”

Abed suddenly understands why he’s so uneasy, and it’s because daylight savings time doesn’t make any sense, and when he tries to think about it, to understand why, in the 21st century, everyone is expected to change their clocks, when artificial light is a thing literally everywhere, he is completely at a loss. Because _it doesn’t make any sense._

“Abed?” He hears Annie’s voice and it’s very, very loud. Everything is very, very loud, and he doesn’t remember the room being this loud a minute ago.

He looks up and sees that Annie and Troy are standing on either side of his chair looking concerned, and he doesn’t understand why until he realizes that _he_ is the reason that it’s so loud, that the high-pitched whining sound permeating the room is coming from him, and he really should have known that, he should be familiar with that sound by now, but somehow it always catches him by surprise.

Suddenly Abed is wrapped in a cocoon. Troy has one hand on his head and his arm around Abed’s shoulder, and Annie has her hand on his back and is patting his face, and Abed is glad they are there, but he still can’t quite manage to respond to Annie yet.

“It’s okay, buddy,” Troy soothes. “Just a few more minutes and we’re good until spring, okay?”

“But it doesn’t make any sense!” Abed bursts out, and then his ability to speak is gone again, the whine is back, and he’s rocking back and forth in his chair.

“Think of it this way,” Annie says, and she’s speaking gently, as if to a child. “We get the hour back later in the year!”

“Yeah!” Troy says.

Abed is aware that they are trying to fix things, and he’d love it if they were successful, but his brain is already a minefield and Annie’s comment lands in exactly the wrong spot. He begins to shriek, and Annie and Troy grip him tighter, and suddenly he’s so overwhelmed he’s not even fixating on the clock anymore, he’s thinking about how his clothes feel like they’re scraping his skin all over, and it’s so bright in this room, and besides the sound of his shrieking he can actually hear the clock hands as they move, and it’s excruciating, _it’s just too much._

“Done,” the janitor shouts, or maybe he’s not shouting, maybe it just sounds that way to Abed. The janitor scrambles down and exits the room as quickly as possible, dragging his ladder behind him.

Abed withdraws into himself, and the shrieking stops, everything stops. Troy and Annie know better than to try to talk to him when he’s like this. He is completely still and silent. He doesn’t know how long he sits like this; the last thing he wants to do is look at a clock.

Eventually he relaxes and lets out a breath, and he’s surprised to find that Troy and Annie haven’t moved. They still have their hands on him, soothing him, and he doesn’t understand. He would have expected them to have gone home by now.

“How’s it going, buddy?” Troy says softly, and runs his hand through Abed’s hair, and it feels nice.

“Sorry,” Abed says, because it feels like the most important thing.

“You don’t have to be sorry,” Annie says, and rubs his shoulder.

“Why are you guys still here?” he asks, and he tries to sound normal, but his voice is small and unsteady.

“We wouldn’t leave you, man,” Troy says. “Not in the middle of that. Not ever.” He lets go of Abed and pivots around so they’re facing each other, and they do their handshake.

“We love you, Abed,” Annie adds, and squeezes his arm gently.

Abed ponders that for a while, and then nods.

“I love you guys too,” he says. “Um, the clocks in our apartment--”

“Jeff is changing them all right now,” Troy says. “I texted him. He should be done by the time we get home.”

“Cool,” Abed says. “Cool, cool, cool.”


End file.
